QUEEN Topped The UK Charts With Blockbuster ‘BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY’ Today 50 Years Ago
Top singles from the past
9 January 2026
QUEEN, one of the greatest bands ever topped the UK Charts with their blockbuster hit BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY for 9 weeks straight, starting on 9 January 1976, today 50 years ago.
The song parodies elements of opera with bombastic choruses, sarcastic recitative, and distorted Italian operatic phrases. Lyrical references include Scaramouche, the fandango, Galileo Galilei, Figaro, and Beelzebub, with cries of Bismillah.
Freddie Mercury called it a mock opera.
Producer Roy Thomas Baker recalled years later: “It was totally insane, but we enjoyed every minute of it. It was basically a joke, but a successful joke. [Laughs]. We had to record it in three separate units. We did the whole beginning bit, then the whole middle bit and then the whole end.
It was complete madness. The middle part started off being just a couple of seconds, but Freddie kept coming in with more “Galileos” and we kept on adding to the opera section, and it just got bigger and bigger. We never stopped laughing. It started off as a ballad, but the end was heavy.”
It featured on their 4th LP
A Night At The Opera.
Once again, Freddie.
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